In conventional surgery, in a case where resecting part of tissue including an affected area with a surgical knife or an energetic treatment tool, the operator determines a resection line in advance, and performs resection along the resection line. Therefore, the operator draws the resection line before the resection.
The method of drawing the resection line may be a method of adding a marker along the resection line on the tissue. Loss, disappearance, or blurring of the marker is undesirable, and therefore, the marking is performed by degenerating the tissue through burning with an energetic treatment tool or locally dyeing the tissue with a dye.
According to this method, to minimize the influence of the marking on the tissue, the marker is added not in the form of a continuous line but in the form of dots placed at intervals. Therefore, when performing resection, the operator needs to imagine a resection line connecting the marker dots from experience and judgment, and then perform the resection along the resection line. In doing so, the operator is required to make an accurate judgment, which puts a heavy burden on the operator. Also, in a case where the operator has poor experience or the like, a large number of markers are required, which leads to increases in influence on the tissue and surgical time.
To mark the resection line, there also is a method by which the blood vessels leading into the tissue including the affected area are compressed or ligated to block blood flow, and thus, the tissue is discolored. According to this method, the operator memorizes the discolored region, and performs resection by imagining a resection line surrounding the discolored region. In doing so, the operator is required to have a good memory, which puts a heavy burden on the operator.
Meanwhile, there is a fluorescent diagnostic device that detects from a fluorescent image the contour of an affected area and the contour of resected tissue including the affected area, and displays the distance between the contours on a monitor (see Patent Document 1, for example).